As higher density semiconductor chips have become available, it has been proposed to put large numbers of active circuits on a single chip. The equivalent of several thousand transistors can now be placed on a single chip only one-fifth of an inch square. Up to the present time, however, the chips have generally been special purpose in nature rather than of general utility. Further, to the extent that general purpose chips have been proposed, they have normally been directed to a specific class of problem rather than encompassing a wide variety of computer and other digital logic applications.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a general purpose logic and computer chip which is sufficiently versatile to have wide applicability, and will still have its logic capability and capacity utilized to a substantial extent in each different type of logic function or computer function in which it may be employed.